Ecotoon
2026
Bewaerschole, Burgh-Haamstede
More information below, and on https://www.bewaerschole.nl/huidig-programma/
The Bewaerschole invited me to spent a month on Schouwen-Duiveland for their programme ‘Moving Along with the Environment’. This programme is about the moment of disruption we are currently experiencing: climate change, epidemics, migration flows, and the energy transition. Artists are invited to reflect on these themes, shifting from seeing humans as the central actors to seeing humanity as part of the fabric of all living things—not as a separate entity, but as part of nature.
I walked, sat still, and listened. To the wind sweeping over the dike, gulls diving for fish, the gentle movement of sand, the water that was sometimes forceful and then soft again, the smallest creatures moving mountains, buzzing bumblebees, meadow birds calling out to one another, the heat and the cold.
Sometimes I listened with my ears. Sometimes with my feet. Sometimes with my whole body. Listening to the transitions where water and land meet. Where the sea reaches the land, where ditches run around the fields, where the dunes form a ring around the island, with moss as soft as a warm bed. Listening to the other, to the voices that cannot always be seen but also live here. The island as a world of sound.
“Listening is not the same as hearing,” said composer Pauline Oliveros. What is your memory of sound on this island? When does this sound stop and the memory begin?
I listened through microphones, geophones, and hydrophones. I went into the ground. What does darkness sound like? What knowledge resides without light? I entered the water, precisely where it is just filling the creek. Lake Grevelingen, where jellyfish mingle with algae and crabs. There, where the sun rose with a full morning concert, sitting right at the front row in Plan Tureluur. In search of the ecotone of Schouwen-Duiveland, shaped by an interplay between human and non-human. A dialogue between fresh and salt water.
I brought these recordings of the island back to my studio: to stretch them, slow them down, zoom in on them, and let them sound together.
Something that struck me about the landscape of Zeeland is that people are never far away. A interplay between salt and fresh water, dikes, and spaces where birds are given room is also shaped by humans. The way the landscape is organized, excluding the sea or, conversely, giving it space. That is why I also wanted to give the human voice a role in my sound piece, and I worked together with members of the Zilt choir from Burgh-Haamstede.
During my residency, Maike Hemmers came by several times. We walked together across the island and had long conversations about how to listen with the body. These conversations led to a new, independent work by Maike, developed especially for this exhibition: a textile sculpture that serves as a soft surface for listeners to sit or lie on.
The work is inspired by Polaris (1987) by Martin Wong, a painting depicting a group of children playing marbles in a circle on a map showing a constellation in the night sky. The sculpture translates this image into a physical place—a surface where visitors, like the children in the painting, gather and turn toward something together.
The fabric is dyed with indigo and plants, most of which come from the garden of Youri Guepin in Nesse, Terneuzen. The patterns were created by wrapping the textile around stones. The surface has been treated with clay and soil from Schouwen-Duiveland.
Ecotoon was made inspired by Deep Listening theory of Pauline Oliveros. Her way of making listening accesible to many, conducting listening session with sonic meditations inspired me to make some listening excersies, inspired by the ecotones. Jacob Hoving designed the ear trumpets that are also available in the exhibition. They contain the listening exercises and you can take with you on a walk over the island.